ABB awarded five-year service contract for Sappi paper mill in the Netherlands

Zurich, Switzerland, April 4, 2012 – ABB, the leading power and automation technology group, has been awarded a five-year Maintenance Improvement Agreement by Sappi to manage and improve all maintenance activities at their Nijmegen fine paper mill in the Netherlands.

Under the performance-based agreement, ABB will manage all maintenance operations to improve overall productivity and equipment reliability at the mill, and retain and further develop all existing maintenance staff and management. ABB will also help the mill to reduce its energy consumption while achieving these production efficiencies.

Sappi’s Nijmegen mill is a producer of coated fine paper located in the middle of its core market. At the Nijmegen Mill, Sappi aims to generate the economic returns necessary to maintain a sustainable business while they minimize their impact on the environment, encourage the development of people and contribute to the communities in which they operate.

“We are confident that together with ABB we will achieve an improvement in paper machine performance reliability and efficiency that, in turn, enables us to better and predictably serve our customers with great product. Equally important, we aim to provide a work environment that allows growth and achievement for our people.” says Wayne Thomas, Mill Director at Sappi Nijmegen.

Under the agreement, ABB also will focus on process optimization and equipment lifecycle management at the site, as well as manage all maintenance related third-party subcontractors and suppliers.

With more than 100 Full Service® agreements with customers in Pulp & Paper, Mining, Metals, Chemicals and other industries globally, ABB best practices and expertise improves the performance, reliability and energy efficiency of production assets, increasing plant efficiency and optimizing total maintenance cost while reducing environmental impact.

ABB (www.abb.com) is a leader in power and automation technologies that enable utility and industry customers to improve their performance while lowering environmental impact. The ABB Group of companies operates in around 100 countries and employs about 135,000 people.